The Training Series
by DannyPhanto fan
Summary: Sequel to "The School Series"; Julie has to earn her badge.
1. Chapter 1

**The Training Series**

**Disclaimer**_**: I don't own Ben 10 and/or Ben 10: Alien Force and/or Ben 10: Ultimate Alien and/or any and/or all concepts and/or characters. They are copyrighted to Man of Action and Cartoon Network Studios. I am a mere Fanfiction author. With far too much time on her hands and no social life.**_

**Rated**_**: T**_

**Part One: Testing, Testing; One, Two, Three **

He paced the hallway outside the testing chambers anxiously, hands clasped behind his back and head bowed slightly and silently. The testing room was soundproofed, even against alien ears.

This was stupid. He was stupid. He had been put through the same exact course and tests; she would be carted out on a stretcher, with multiple fractures, bruises, and cuts.

He had promised her parents, when he had revealed his secret to them, that he would keep her safe from his world. And now he was letting her dive in headfirst.

He could not interrupt the testing of new recruits, it was a cardinal rule and breaking it would cost a Plumber their badge, so he could only hope and pray that she would fail.

The heavy wooden door creaked open slowly, to reveal an exhausted but smiling Julie walking out under her own power.

"I earned my first scar," she spoke softly and he scanned her before seeing it. Her right eye was swollen shut and a thin, deep cut ran from her eyebrow, into her upper eyelid, down into her lower eyelid before ending a couple centimeters beneath the eye itself.

He grabbed her tightly, looking the rest of her over, before saying firmly, "I'm taking you down to Sickbay, get that fixed. Maybe next time—"

"What are you talking about?" she asked bemusedly, pulling a bundle of papers from her pocket, and saying, "I passed; I'm supposed to go get my Bleu Badge… I've been assigned you three as my mentors…"

He grinned, taking her hand in his, "Then let's go get it."

He led her expertly through the maze of headquarters to the Badge Issuing Room.

The Bleu Badge was in fact yellow, instead of green, because she was on probation and had what amounted to parental locks encoded into it, severely limiting her access to the Organization. In case she went rogue. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Part Two: This Is Not a Game**

"Ben, I'm not sure ab—" she started out nervously.

"We need to train you in some sort of fight skill…"

She worried her lip, eyeing the wooden staff in her hands.

"You can't hurt me," he assured her, "Come at me!"

So she lunged, going into the standard staff sparring routine. He parried her blows easily, weaving to and fro, shouting, "C'mon Julie, you'd be dead by now!"

She gritted her teeth, beginning to improvise her moves and striking harder.

"Good, good, but you have to hit harder! These wouldn't even bruise a human!"

With a disappointed sigh he easily disarmed and then incapacitated her.

"You're dead Jules."

He helped her up, telling her, "This isn't a game, Julie. We have no save points, no extra lives; screw up and it's game over for good…"

"I know that!" her face burnt. How dare he imply that she was treating this as a joke.

"Apparently not; I know you can fight harder, I've seen you do it."

"Self-defense classes aren't the same; those people are human!"

"Well I'm not. The creatures you'll be fighting won't be either; get used to it or give up."

The staff struck him across the side of the head, knocking him down.

"Get up." She ordered, with a fire in her eyes that wasn't usually there. He had gotten her angry. He grinned, leaping to his feet.

She was striking harder, improvising moves more this time and so lasted a couple seconds longer than before but he still easily rendered her vulnerable. But she wasn't done yet. He had had gotten her pissed. It wasn't easy to get Julie to go berserk but when she did it wasn't very nice. He blocked most of her strikes and so she played dirty, grabbing his family jewels and twisting. He went to his knees, as she released her hold, holding himself and squeaking out, "Not fair, Julie, not fair!"

"Never imply that I think this a game or I'll do much worse."

He gulped, tears of pain still rolling, and nodded frantically. He the fell onto his side, beginning to whimper.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part Three: Iron**_**woman**_

"Ben, I'm _**really**_ not sure—"

"Jules, you suck in hand-to-hand combat and the chances are you'll have to do a lot of aerial fighting. I've gotten the airspace over Soladad cleared for the day."

She sighed, nodding.

Ship jumped to her chest, beginning to cover her form. It was the creepiest sensation she had ever felt. His metal form was cold against her human skin as he slid over her like an Ironman suit. Thankfully he knew to cover her face last.

"Ready?" Ben had already turned to Jet-ray.

She nodded, feeling the neuro-sensors splay themselves across her skin. They connected her movements, her electrical patterns to her pet and vice versa

"Right," he nodded, "Ship, you're only supposed to keep her alive and in the air; anything else has to be a command from her. Got it?"

"_**Shhhiiiiipppp**_." The symbiote intoned.

"Good. Catch me if you can!"

And Ben shot straight up. "Uh oh, Shi—!" before she could stop him, Ship made them rocket up as well.

She couldn't help the instinctive scream of pure terror that ripped from her throat as they raced higher than most commercial airliners. It was then and only then that she realized that they were heading out of earth's atmosphere.

"SHIP STOP!" and they lurched to a stop, hovering.

"Okay," she muttered as she did a mental inventory of herself. Her throat was a little sore but other than that she was fine.

"Okay, Ship, we need to find Ben; scan for his heat signature please…" the visor in front of her face suddenly sprouted binoculars that allowed her to search for a living being via heat. She scanned the area around her and below her, seeing little pinpricks of heat moving around on the ground before a larger blob zoom through her lens' sight.

"Got him! Ship can you see him?

"_**Shhhiiiiipppp**_."

"Follow hi—Shi—!"

He had blasted them off again, chasing after Jet-ray. After the initial fear wore off she found flight quite enjoyable and grinned as her prey came into her field of vision

"Lock onto him Ship."

The visor became smooth and a red circle came up on it, encircling Ben's form.

"Hand energy blaster, stunner mode." she reached out, opened her palm and felt the area warm up as the blaster gathered energy, "Careful Ship, we're just playing tag."

They were gaining on him, "Now Ship." The blast left home and headed towards it's target. But, being the experienced flyer of the two, Ben merely dodged, lifted and aimed his tail to start shooting beams at her.

On his own accord Ship dodged the lasers, "Hold steady Ship"; she bit her lip. Obviously, unless they got in a really lucky shot, laser blasts weren't going to work.

"Fall back boy." They stopped, beginning to hover.

"Ship can you give me a list of all your possible non-lethal weapons?"

"_**Shhhiiiiipppp**_."

A list of all non-lethal options came to the visor's screen and began scrolling upwards.

"The net." She decided and felt the implement come to her palm. They chased Ben down again and netted him; he dropped like a stone the second his wings folded. The line connecting the net to the netter went taut, "Take us to the ground Ship."

They lowered slowly and carefully, settling the now human Ben onto the dirt gently before touching down themselves. Ship left Julie, going to her wrist like a bracer.

"Not bad," Ben commented, having untangled himself from the netting and now on his feet brushing himself off, "Not bad but not good. You're so green…" he lifted up the netting, "You see, you should have thought of this first; it's always easier to catch flyers rather than wound them, especially for newbies…"

He sighed, "Ship can you clean up?"

The blob nodded and sucked the netting up like a noodle.

"Let's get back home; I need a bath…" he scratched his head, "I think Jet-ray has fleas…"

She giggled and nodded.


	4. Chapter 4

**Part Four: Probing the Depths of the Human Mind**

She was sure she was missing a couple atoms; they knew she didn't like non-magical teleportation.

She found her second mentor floating cross-leggedly over her mat. Julie silently laid out her own and assumed the same position although she stayed grounded.

It was along time before Gwen spoke, "Do you have any idea about what I'm going to teach you?"

"No."

"Ben is teaching strategy, Kevin will show you firepower; I'm here to give you the tools to master your mind, your fears. Plumbers have been known to go rogue from the stress, responsibility of their duties; their psyches couldn't handle it all. You are going to see many terrible things and so we're, the Organization and us three, are worried that you'll eventually snap."

Her eyes opened, revealing that they were just energy, "It is all about moderation and staying grounded; you're going to be invested with a great amount of power and influence but you cannot let it get to you, understand?"

"Yes."

"Good, today I'm just going to peek inside your head…"

"_**What?**_" Julie balked.

"I'm going to go through anything and everything in your head to see if you have anything anyone could blackmail you with or if you have any latent psychological disorders that could be activated under the wrong circumstances…Don't worry it should be painless…"

"Should?"

"Yes, side effects include; mild ditziness, mild headache, itchiness, premonitional dreams, oh and/or a bloody nose…"

"That's all." Julie muttered sarcastically before sighing and nodding.

"Good," Gwen nodded, turning to face her, reaching a hand to her scalp and stating, "Deep breath and don't fight me; this is going to feel weird…"

"How long should this take?"

Gwen shrugged, "Depends on the person. Kevin's head took me hours to get through completely but Ben only took me a couple minutes…_**Ssshhh**_…"

And so it began and it indeed it felt very strange. It felt as if someone was poking at her brain itself with a small needle.

"Stay outta my cerebral cortex," Julie snapped as her limbs twitched.

"Sorry, your brain is set up differently than ours it seems; can you pull up a memory, point me in the right direction…"

"My _**memory**_?"

"Yeah, we need to know everything from your past…"

Her cheeks colored and a very intimate memory popped up unbidden.

'No!' she thought desperately as she realized that Gwen would see it, 'Not that one!'

"Okay Julie," Gwen sounded as if she needed to vomit, "when I asked for a memory I meant something like your first bicycle ride or best game or…I did not need to see _**that**_…"

"Sorry," the human mumbled abashedly, her cheeks burning red, "I freaked out."

"I got it."

Julie's life flashed before her eyes, on fast-forward and without sound, she even saw her own birth; which was very odd to actually watch.

"Okay nothing there," her mentor muttered, receding from the memory section and heading out to the emotion control sections.

Julie was made to feel angry, depressed, cheery, embarrassed, jealous, and uninterested all within a single minute. When the manna left she didn't know what she should feel like and so simply settled on being annoyed as hell.

"Good, good. Now I need to check your pain receptors, see if they're normal or not…"

"Wait a minute; I thought this was supposed to be pain_**less**_?"

"I lied," her mentor pronounced simply, "get used to it; people, even aliens, lie and we lie quite often. Hold on."

An electrical current ran through every nerve in her body, making her scream with pain as they sparked to life. The current ran its course before being directed back into the sender; leaving its victim panting and heart pounding.

"That isn't good," the redhead muttered, pulling a clipboard from nowhere and writing something, "we can have Cooper dull them…"


	5. Chapter 5

**Part Five: Under the Knife**

"Implanting the chip now," the chip was experimental, the size of a person's pinky nail, and would be at the junction of her head and neck. Cooper carefully maneuvered the chip into between the nerves, which if severed could cause permanent paralysis, using tweezers.

Julie was totally awake for the procedure as only her skin and outer muscles were completely numbed. She sighed. The figured they would have to augment her physical abilities and the chip they were implanting was to do that. It rather itched as they moved her nerves aside and placed the chip.

"Doing okay?"" Ben whispered worriedly. He was sitting by her head to keep her company.

"For the nineteenth time yes," she was getting rather short with his coddling, "I'm not in pain, I'm not feeling dizzy or lightheaded, I don't need to puke; I'm fine."

"Sorry."

She sighed again, "I'm sorry, I'm getting annoyed but I shouldn't take it out on you. You're only worried about me, I shouldn't bite at you." She popped her neck, "To be truthful, it itches and I'm getting stiff here."

He smiled a predator's smile, leaning down and beginning to whisper something in her ear. Her nervous system responded, sending the small electrical pulses throughout her body.

"For X'Hal's sake Ben!" Cooper growled as the pulsing nerves activated the chip, "We told you not to work her up!"

"Sorry Coop," he apologized unremorsefully, grinning like mad.

The blonde sighed and closed the incision expertly just as feeling came back to his patient.

Ben helped Julie sit up, whispering something more in her ear and she flushed, nodding.


	6. Chapter 6

**Part Six: Super Soakers **

"There's no way in hell I'm using that!" she flat out told her third mentor. The gun he held was longer than his arm and was wider as well.

He rolled his eyes, "Duh," he pulled out a paintball gun, tossing it to her, "you're using that until I'm sure you won't shoot me."

She raised an eyebrow but then nodded.

"It's filled with pigs' blood capsules," he warned, "To simulate the real deal; getcha used to the gore you'll see." He grinned and suddenly she didn't feel safe being around him, "But they told you I'd show you firepower so…"

He pulled out a small seemingly normal nine millimeter gun, the classic cop gun, saying, "The names don't matter yet…just watch."

He aimed at an oak and shot; as soon as the ammo hit the tree withered and died.

"That's a stunner for Humongasaurs, deadly for anything smaller," he smirked, holstering the gun before kneeling to a case, explaining, "This is the next level," he quickly put the sniper rifle together, "Galvanian modified human M-16 sniper rifle; when you go into a situation you better pray to your god that it's a friend watching your back with one of these."

He lined up the shot and took it, the targeted tree going up in a small, rather pretty mushroom cloud. He grinned, dismantled the weapon and packed it away, moving passed the next three weapon stages and straight to the last. He pulled the tarp off the weapon, it was half his height and matched his width, grinning like mad, "This's the Big Kids' toy; known only as The Vaporizer, illegal for even Plumbers to use. But you need to see it in action…Don't blink…" he lined up the shot and took it. Or at least she though he did because one split second the targeted tree was there and the next it had vanished.

"A hundred percent lethal," he spoke gleefully, excitedly, "a hundred percent of the time. Usually you won't know what hit you. Nobody knows if it's painful or not."

She gulped, eyeing the missing tree's spot fearfully.

"This's war," he intoned, "almost anything goes. It's kill or be killed. Which one are you?"

"Kill." She squeaked.

"I didn't hear you," he cupped his hand around his ear, "which one are you?"

"Kill." She found her steady firm voice and nearly shouted her answer.

He nodded, grinning, "Good choice. Now see that target," he pointed to a human shaped paper target that had a large golden blotch where the heart would have been and a blue blotch on the forehead. The target was a good half a football field away. "Shoot to kill."

She nodded, kneeling on one knee as she had been taught to. She lined up the shot, the chip in her allowing her to squint and zoom in with her left eye like a camera's lens. She pulled the trigger and the recoil slammed the gun into her shoulder, probably bruising it. But her shot was true as the capsule hit the heart circle.

With rapid movements she exhausted her ammo supply, each capsule hitting where she had wanted them to.

She grinned up at her shocked mentor, "More please?"

He scowled at her, gave her a bigger gun and was incensed when she repeated her perfect performance.

So this almost comical routine was repeated until he threw up his hands in disgusted frustration, declared she didn't need training from him, stormed away (leaving the weapons), got into his car, and tore off.

"I'm sorry?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Part Seven: Graduation Day**

She had been in an embarrassing state when she opened to the knocking at the door. "Grandpa Max!"

She was half undressed under her bathrobe, her hair was in a messy bun which was held in place by a ball-point pen, and her toothbrush was hanging from her mouth. She was home alone; her parents at work.

The old man smiled genially, she was just like another granddaughter to him, and gave the safety code, "Vomit Comet."

She relaxed and smiled, standing aside to allow him inside, saying around toothbrush and toothpaste, "Sorry, I just woke up…"

"No problem Kiddo." To him she was 'Kiddo', Gwen was 'Pumpkin; it was the exact opposite of what Grandma Verdona called them.

She went back to the bathroom, leaving Max seated on the couch, and quickly readied herself for the day.

"You've worked pretty hard over the past few months haven't you?" Max started as soon as she sat into the recliner.

"No," she replied modestly, "not hard enough…"

He smiled, taking a small rectangular box from his breast pocket, "Our superiors think differently…"

She took the box with shaking hands and opened it to find, "Oh my god…"

There, nestled in the box, was a brand new Plumber's badge. It gleamed in the light, unsmudged by any limbs or scratched and dulled by active use.

Tears of gratefulness, pride, and relief began falling down her face, "_**Thank you**_."

"Don't thank me Kiddo," Max chuckled softly, "you've earned it. They're pretty impressed by your dedication, endurance, and adaptability." He stood up, "I've gotta run, Verdona's on-world. The other three should be awake…"

She stood up quickly, putting aside the box and her badge, and hugged him tightly. He hugged back just as warmly before taking his leave.

"Hey guys!" she called as she walked up to their usual table. Ben and Gwen greeted her loudly while Kevin remained silent.

"Grandpa Max dropped by this morning," she explained as she neared them, "he dropped off something.'

"What did he drop off?" Ben questioned worriedly.

She grinned and pulled out her badge, her properly green badge, "This."

Ben was first up, hugging her tightly and pecking her cheek as the other two gathered around them. Gwen hugged her as well while Kevin clapped her on the back.

"Howzabout another round of smoothies? On Kevin!"

"_**Tennyson…**_"

_**END**_


End file.
